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Rushika M. Perera

@rushika-perera.bsky.social
584 followers 169 following 28 posts

Associate Prof. @UCSF Dept. of Anatomy & Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center | My lab studies lysosomes, autophagy, metabolism and pancreatic cancer visit us at : rushikapereralab.com

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Rushika M. Perera @rushika-perera.bsky.social · 05/01/2026
Registration is open for the upcoming GRC Autophagy in Stress and Disease - we have an amazing line up of speakers ! Come to sunny California ☀️ March 15-20 2026 #autophagy #cancer #aging #immunity #neurodegeneration #GRC www.grc.org/autophagy-in...
grc.org
2026 Autophagy in Stress, Development and Disease Conference GRC
The 2026 Gordon Research Conference on Autophagy in Stress, Development and Disease will be held in Ventura, California. Apply today to reserve your spot.
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Rushika M. Perera @rushika-perera.bsky.social · 17/10/2025
Join us in sunny California for the 2026 GRC Autophagy meeting! Excited to co-chair with Oliver Florey and vice chairs Helene Knaevelsrud and @robzonculab.bsky.social Keynote speakers incl. Eileen White, @idikic.bsky.social and Sharon Tooze- Registration is open: link⬇️ www.grc.org/autophagy-in...
grc.org
2026 Autophagy in Stress, Development and Disease Conference GRC
The 2026 Gordon Research Conference on Autophagy in Stress, Development and Disease will be held in Ventura, California. Apply today to reserve your spot.
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Reposted by Rushika M. Perera
UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center @ucsfcancer.bsky.social · 04/06/2025
Senior author @rushika-perera.bsky.social @ucsanfrancisco.bsky.social on latest publication suggesting new opportunities to treat pancreatic cancer, which is notoriously resistant to many therapies | Pancreatic Cancer Spreads to Liver or Lung Thanks to This Protein cancer.ucsf.edu/news/2025/06...
Rushika Perera on latest Nature paper
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Rushika M. Perera @rushika-perera.bsky.social · 22/05/2025
Thanks Walter !
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Rushika M. Perera @rushika-perera.bsky.social · 22/05/2025
Thank you my friend😊
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Rushika M. Perera @rushika-perera.bsky.social · 22/05/2025
thank you! 😊
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Rushika M. Perera @rushika-perera.bsky.social · 21/05/2025
thanks John!
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Rushika M. Perera @rushika-perera.bsky.social · 21/05/2025
thank yoy!
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Rushika M. Perera @rushika-perera.bsky.social · 21/05/2025
thanks Jim !
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Rushika M. Perera @rushika-perera.bsky.social · 21/05/2025
Thank you Christian! 🙏
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Rushika M. Perera @rushika-perera.bsky.social · 21/05/2025
Thanks Gina !
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Rushika M. Perera @rushika-perera.bsky.social · 21/05/2025
We are grateful to the granting agencies, including @theaacr.bsky.social, NIH, The Ed Mara Passion to Win Fund and the Belgian American Education Foundation (to G.R), which supported this work.
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Rushika M. Perera @rushika-perera.bsky.social · 21/05/2025
Thank you to our wonderful collaborators and their lab members - @robzonculab.bsky.social Jen Jen Yeh, Eric Collisson, the German PDAC consortium, Mark Looney, Bruce Wang, Grace Kim, Kwun Wen - and to @nature.com and the reviewers for their thoughtful review of our study.
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Rushika M. Perera @rushika-perera.bsky.social · 21/05/2025
These findings show that chol. uptake favors liver growth, while synthesis supports lung growth. Accordingly, PCSK9 o/e shifted liver-avid cells to the lung, while PCSK9 KO redirected lung-avid cells to the liver, establishing PCSK9 as a key regulator of metastatic organ choice
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Rushika M. Perera @rushika-perera.bsky.social · 21/05/2025
Reliance on de novo cholesterol synthesis, enables lung-avid cells to produce intermediates like 7-dehydrocholesterol that confer resistance to oxidative stress (eg, ferroptosis) in the oxygen-rich lung environment.
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Rushika M. Perera @rushika-perera.bsky.social · 21/05/2025
The ability to uptake cholesterol and route it to the lysosome, enables liver-avid cells to maintain high mTORC1 signaling and produce an oxysterol (eg, 24-hydroxycholesterol) that can activate adjacent hepatocytes to support tumor growth.
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Rushika M. Perera @rushika-perera.bsky.social · 21/05/2025
PCSK9 is a negative regulator of LDLR - the receptor for uptake of LDL-cholesterol. Accordingly, lung-avid lines which express high PCSK9 cannot uptake LDL and instead biosynthesize cholesterol, while liver-avid lines which express low PCSK9 efficiently uptake LDL-cholesterol.
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Rushika M. Perera @rushika-perera.bsky.social · 21/05/2025
To identify metabolic drivers linked to secondary organ choice, we interrogated gene expression analyses to determine which genes were differentially upregulated in lung- versus liver-avid lines. This analysis identified PCSK9 as the top ranked gene correlating with lung-avid
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Rushika M. Perera @rushika-perera.bsky.social · 21/05/2025
Gilles then validated these findings using in vivo transplant models of metastasis and showed that specific PDAC lines preferred to seed and grow in the liver while others preferred the lung. We also noted that metastatic organ preference correlates with PDAC subtype.
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Rushika M. Perera @rushika-perera.bsky.social · 21/05/2025
Our study began by interrogating the MetMap database depmap.org/metmap/ to identify organ tropic behaviors of human PDAC cell lines. We noted that several lines showed selective preference for liver colonization relative to other organs including the lung.
depmap.org
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Rushika M. Perera @rushika-perera.bsky.social · 21/05/2025
PDAC metastasizes to the liver, lungs, peritoneum and lymph nodes - we were interested in identifying key metabolic dependencies that enable efficient seeding the colonization in the liver and lungs.
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Rushika M. Perera @rushika-perera.bsky.social · 21/05/2025
Online today in @nature.com - our latest study led by superstar postdoc Gilles Rademaker detailing the role of PSCK9 in driving sterol dependent metastatic organ choice in pancreatic cancer nature.com/articles/s41... full text available here 👉 rdcu.be/em0VG and thread 👇
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Aria Vaishnavi, PhD @drariav.bsky.social · 09/05/2025
I am thrilled to share that the first preprint from my lab is now available on bioRxiV! In this study, our team elucidates the role of autocrine ligands in the aberrant behavior of oncogene-driven lung cancer. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
biorxiv.org
BRAFV600E-Driven Lung Tumorigenesis Requires Ligand-Mediated Activation of ERBB Receptor Signaling
Secretion of ligands of the human epidermal growth factor (EGFR) family of receptors or erythroblastic leukemia viral oncogene family (ERBB1-4) is a feature common to many cancer cells. However, our u...
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UCSF Health @ucsfhealth.bsky.social · 10/05/2025
👏 Congratulations to Dr. Edward Chang on his election to the National Academy of Sciences! Dr. Chang is the first neurosurgeon to achieve this prestigious distinction since Harvey Cushing's election more than 100 years ago in 1917! More about this historic recognition ➡️ ucsfh.org/438cefp
Dr. Edward Chang poses in a blazer and white button-down shirt.
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Micha Rapé Lab @micharapelab.bsky.social · 25/04/2025
Wonderful talk by @rushika-perera.bsky.social of @ucsfhealth.bsky.social today in our @mti-ucb.bsky.social/#MolecularTherapeutics seminar series at @ucberkeleyofficial.bsky.social today, presenting cool data about organ-selective metastasis! Thank you!!!
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Aakriti Jain @aakritijain.bsky.social · 27/03/2025
SO excited to share that a major part of the postdoctoral work in @robzonculab.bsky.social lab is now published: “Leucine aminopeptidase LyLAP enables lysosomal degradation of membrane proteins” www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
science.org
Leucine aminopeptidase LyLAP enables lysosomal degradation of membrane proteins
Breakdown of every transmembrane protein trafficked to lysosomes requires proteolysis of their hydrophobic helical transmembrane domains. Combining lysosomal proteomics with functional genomic dataset...
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Rushika M. Perera @rushika-perera.bsky.social · 28/03/2025
An incredible tour de force in biochemistry and cell biology by superstar @robzonculab.bsky.social lab postdoc @aakritijain.bsky.social LyLAP - a new lysosomal protease responsible for degrading integral membrane proteins in highly phagocytic cells like #PDAC cells. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
science.org
Leucine aminopeptidase LyLAP enables lysosomal degradation of membrane proteins
Breakdown of every transmembrane protein trafficked to lysosomes requires proteolysis of their hydrophobic helical transmembrane domains. Combining lysosomal proteomics with functional genomic dataset...
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Aria Vaishnavi, PhD @drariav.bsky.social · 12/03/2025
Fantastic talk today by the legend herself: so great to have her in house!! Don’t mind me while I fangirl over THE Dr. Rushika Perera! @rushika-perera.bsky.social @anirbanmaitra.bsky.social
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Rushika M. Perera @rushika-perera.bsky.social · 12/03/2025
Thanks Aria ! So fun to visit and catch up 🥰
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Nature Cell Biology @natcellbio.nature.com · 04/03/2025
☕️Kovalski et al. perform a genome-wide CRISPRi screen for selective MYC translation regulators and identify RBM42 as a ribosome-associated protein that modulates MYC translation and an #oncogenic mRNA program required for #PancreaticCancer growth. 👉🏼https://rdcu.be/ecb4e bit.ly/41FKwY3
bit.ly
Functional screen identifies RBM42 as a mediator of oncogenic mRNA translation specificity - Nature Cell Biology
Kovalski et al. perform a genome-wide CRISPRi screen for selective MYC mRNA translation regulators and identify RBM42 as a ribosome-associated protein that modulates translation of MYC and an oncogeni...
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scientistjoanna.bsky.social @scientistjoanna.bsky.social · 06/03/2025
We are thrilled to share our discovery of a new factor, the RBP RBM42, which is key to fueling pancreas cancer through the deadly oncogene Myc. I look forward to what we uncover next! Thanks to the fantastic team lead by @DavideRuggero @rushika-perera.bsky.social & @genophoria.bsky.social!
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Rushika M. Perera @rushika-perera.bsky.social · 15/01/2025
Today we celebrate Zena Werb with an inspirational memorial lecture delivered by @carolynbertozzi.bskyverified.social who is a former UCSF Dept of Anatomy postdoc alum !
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Elizabeth McKenna @elizsmckenna.bsky.social · 09/01/2025
Doing my first cancer research #newPI rollcall on Bluesky! Please leave a comment with what you work on so I can follow you!
group of blue butterflies
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Elizabeth McKenna @elizsmckenna.bsky.social · 02/01/2025
📢Please apply for the Cancer Discovery Early Career Award if you are the first or corresponding author of a Cancer Discovery paper published in 2023 or 2024, Assistant Professor or equivalent, and got your PhD/MD within the past 12 years! The deadline is January 10! aacrjournals.org/cancerdiscov...
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Gregory Ducker Lab @duckerlab.bsky.social · 06/01/2025
Happy New Year. I’m pleased to report publication of the Ducker lab’s latest cancer metabolism paper led by graduate student Kyle Dunlap in @cp-cellreports.bsky.social www.cell.com/cell-reports.... 1/n
cell.com
SLC7A5 is required for cancer cell growth under arginine-limited conditions
Metabolic adaptations are key to cancer cell survival in nutrient-limited microenvironments, but strategies for coping with arginine scarcity are poorly understood. Dunlap et al. use CRISPR screening and metabolomics to identify the plasma membrane transporter SLC7A5 as a citrulline transporter essential for cancer cell growth under arginine limitation.
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Christian Frezza @frezzalab.bsky.social · 26/12/2024
For those starting on BSKY and loving #metabolism and #mitochondria, the 2 starter packs have now been completed. 300 scientists working in this field are here to be followed! Happy Boxing Day Starter pack 1: go.bsky.app/VavECSX Starter pack 2: go.bsky.app/CH1MctZ
media.tenor.com
a stack of gift boxes with the words happy boxing day below
ALT: a stack of gift boxes with the words happy boxing day below
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Christian Frezza @frezzalab.bsky.social · 22/12/2024
Good Sunday, all. What a wonderful collection of papers in #cancermetabolism and #mitochondrialbiology this is! Check it here: biomed.news/bims-camemi/... @biomednews.bsky.social Happy holiday season to you all! "Knowledge is an unending adventure at the edge of uncertainty."-Jacob Bronowski
media.tenor.com
bart simpson is talking to santa claus who is laying in a chair
ALT: bart simpson is talking to santa claus who is laying in a chair
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M. S. AtKisson @igrrrl.bsky.social · 21/12/2024
Happy Saturday. If you're working on your NIH specific Aims for a February submission, don't include a figure. grants.nih.gov/grants-proce....
grants.nih.gov
Format Attachments | Grants & Funding
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Sean J. Morrison @seanjmorrison.bsky.social · 20/12/2024
Congrats to Salma Merchant for Cell Stem Cell paper: the effects of fatty acid oxidation in hematopoietic stem cells are context dependent. FAO is not necessary in young HSCs, but becomes necessary during aging, and is deleterious when upregulated by a high fat diet. www.cell.com/cell-stem-ce...
cell.com
Different effects of fatty acid oxidation on hematopoietic stem cells based on age and diet
Morrison and colleagues show long-chain fatty acid oxidation has context-dependent effects on hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs). It is dispensable for HSC function in young mice. It becomes necessary for normal HSC function and hematopoiesis in older mice. A high-fat diet increases fatty acid oxidation, and this impairs HSC function.
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Rushika M. Perera @rushika-perera.bsky.social · 16/12/2024
Hi Rajat - can you add me too ? Thanks !
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Rushika M. Perera @rushika-perera.bsky.social · 16/12/2024
@robzonculab.bsky.social lab representing at #CellBio2024 San Diego - great talks in the #Lysosome session by @hrshin.bsky.social @cri-utsw.bsky.social and @aakritijain.bsky.social 🙌 Lysosomes are amazing !
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Elizabeth McKenna @elizsmckenna.bsky.social · 09/12/2024
Now online in Cancer Discovery: Androgen Receptor Inhibition Increases MHC Class I Expression and Improves Immune Response in Prostate Cancer - by Lisa Chesner, Felix Feng, Amy Moran, and colleagues @ucsfcancer.bsky.social @ohsunews.bsky.social doi.org/10.1158/2159...
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I-75 Scientist @flscitriguy.bsky.social · 11/12/2024
New NCI K32. Up to $80K for salary. $30K/yr research development. US citizenship NOT required. 🧪 grants.nih.gov/grants/guide...
grants.nih.gov
NOT-CA-25-017: Notice of Intent to Publish a Funding Opportunity Announcement for Academic Career Excellence (ACE) Award (K32 - Independent Clinical Trial Required)
NIH Funding Opportunities and Notices in the NIH Guide for Grants and Contracts: Notice of Intent to Publish a Funding Opportunity Announcement for Academic Career Excellence (ACE) Award (K32 - Indepe...
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Rushika M. Perera @rushika-perera.bsky.social · 12/12/2024
In case you missed it.. New preprint! Our latest study identifying how MHC-I is captured by autophagy and targeted for degradation in #PDAC - It all happens at the ER ! Congrats to co-first authors Marine Berquez, Alex Li & Matthew Luy. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
biorxiv.org
A multi-subunit autophagic capture complex facilitates degradation of ER stalled MHC-I in pancreatic cancer
Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDA) evades immune detection partly via autophagic capture and lysosomal degradation of major histocompatibility complex class I (MHC-I). Why MHC-I is susceptible to ...
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Cosimo Commisso @cosimocommisso.bsky.social · 05/12/2024
🚨 New bioRxiv study! 🚨 PDAC adapts to glutamine depletion via macropinocytosis, reshaping CAF subtypes & tumor stroma. Blocking it sensitizes tumors to therapy. Shoutout to Dr. Yijuan Zhang for leading this amazing work! Read more: 🔗 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... #CancerResearch #PDAC #TME
biorxiv.org
Macropinocytosis controls metabolic stress-driven CAF subtype identity in pancreatic cancer
Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) tumors are deficient in glutamine, an amino acid that tumor cells and CAFs use to sustain their fitness. In PDAC, both cell types stimulate macropinocytosis as ...
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Edna Cukierman - Tumor Microenvironment @tme-caf-ecm.bsky.social · 11/12/2024
Congratulations to the new #AACR #TME working group Chair elect!!! The one and only (best friend and colleague) @ashi-w.bsky.social www.aacr.org/professional...
aacr.org
TME Working Group Chair-Elect Election Results
Congratulations to Ashani T. Weeraratna, PhDTME Working Group Chair-elect 2025-2026 Our thanks to Ashani T. Weeraratna, PhD, and Marina Pasca di Magliano, PhD, for standing for election, and to the TM...
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Rushika M. Perera @rushika-perera.bsky.social · 12/12/2024
Me !!! Just joined 😀
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